The present inventions are related to systems and methods for accessing information from a storage medium, and more particularly to systems and methods for focusing processing power on particular portions of information accessed from the storage medium.
A typical storage device includes a storage medium where information is stored that may be retrieved at a later point. As an example, a hard disk drive may include a storage medium 100 implemented as a disk platter. FIG. 1 shows two exemplary tracks 150, 155 on storage medium 100 as dashed lines and written respective distances from an outer perimeter 140. The tracks are segregated by servo data written within wedges 160, 165. These wedges include data and supporting bit patterns that are used for control and synchronization of the head assembly over a desired storage location on storage medium 100. In particular, such wedges traditionally include a preamble pattern followed by a single sector address mark (SAM) as shown by element 110. The SAM is followed by a Gray code, and the Gray code is followed by burst information. It should be noted that while two tracks and two wedges are shown, hundreds of each would typically be included on a given storage medium. Further, it should be noted that a sector may have two or more bursts.
In a typical scenario, a sensing head is positioned over a track where a desired set of information resides. Once positioned, storage medium 100 is moved relative to the sensing head as sectors are continuously read from storage medium 100. The accessed information is being provided to a processing circuit. The processing circuit makes the same processing power available to process each set of data accessed from the storage medium. Such an approach, however, may not allow sufficient processing power for more difficult and/or important data sets, and may apply too much processing power to less difficult and/or important data sets. This results alternatively potential processing failures or excess power utilization.
Hence, for at least the aforementioned reasons, there exists a need in the art for advanced systems and methods for obtaining data from potentially defective media.